How To Make A Clock In The Home Machine Shop - Part 3, by Clickspring.nnPlenty of lathe work in this video, making the brass washers and mil...
How To Make A Clock In The Home Machine Shop - Part 3, by Clickspring.nnPlenty of lathe work in this video, making the brass washers and mild steel screws for the John Wilding "Large Wheel Skeleton Clock" project.nnI also tackle a problem that has been bugging me for a while - how to get a decent scratch free polish using diamantine powder. Far from a perfect finish, but a big improvement on my previous efforts at a black polish.nnThanks for watching. If you enjoyed the video please give me a thumbs up, and a comment. If you know someone who might like this sort of video, please share it with them.nnIf you would like to help support the creation of these videos, then head on over to the Clickspring Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/clickspringnnOther Videos to Watch:nnHow To Make A Clock Part 1 - Making The Clock Framesnhttp://youtu.be/B8Y146v8HxEnnHow To Machine A Small Lathe Carriernhttp://youtu.be/zB9XhqzBNJsnnVisit the Clickspring Blog:nhttp://www.clickspringprojects.comnnAsk Me A Question:nhttp://www.clickspringprojects.com/contact.htmlnnFollow Clickspring:nhttp://www.facebook.com/Clickspring1nhttp://plus.google.com/u/0/113668471124073837794/postsnhttp://instagram.com/clickspring1/nhttps://www.tumblr.com/blog/clickspring1nhttps://twitter.com/clickspring1nhttps://www.patreon.com/clickspringnnTranscript:n00:20 The washers are as you'd expect, a simple disc, but with an ornamental groove around the edge. I need 5 like this, and then an additional one with a countersink, making 6 in total. Its a fairly straightforward piece of turning, and I found it easiest to turn them all in the one sitting.n00:39 The first one I'm doing is the one with the countersink, followed by the 5 with just the simple clearance hole. Wilding recommends in his construction manual that they have a slight undercut at the center of the underside surface, so they seat well on the plates.n01:14 To do that I turned up a quick cement chuck on the small lathe, bonded the washers on with a little super glue, and then set up for a very light taper cut. Just a few degrees, and then took a facing cut across the underside of the washer. A little bit of heat breaks the super glue bond, and now the washers have a slightly concave base, and should sit nice and snug at the perimeter.n02:21 First I roughed out the shape, then undercut the head, and finally I used a die to cut the thread I parted them off just a little bit overlength to leave a bit of metal for finishing.n04:11 At this point the screw form is basically complete, it just needs to be brought to final di mension and then polished. So its back to the small lathe for the final operations.n04:34 Off camera I turned up this little filing guide to help me keep the edges of the screw square during sanding and polishing.n05:00 This is a tailstock polishing tool I made for my small lathe, I've tried to emulate the classic screw head polishing tool used by watchmakers.n05:29 The lap aligns nicely with the surface of the screw head, and can be lightly rotated to bring a fresh cutting surface to bear on the work, but I've found that under power its a bit too aggressive, probably causing more problems than it solves. Operated by hand though, with a reasonably fine grit, and it does a good job.n06:06 Now I plan to do the polishing with Diamantine powder, and I must confess I haven't had much success with it so far. I can get it to polish, but I always seem to get these little scratches that ruin the finish. So with these screws I was determined to sort out what was going wrong.n06:25 I figured I would try out different polish consistencies, and a few other things, and see what I could learn. So first up I tried a fairly wet mix on a soft wood lap. Most of the texts also make mention of a putty consistency to the polish, so I tried that too. In both cases the polish cut ok,n07:11 But eventually though, I hit the same snag which put me off last time. The surface was polishing, but I was picking up some nasty scratches too.n07:30 So first of all I went back one step to remove the scratches with the emery paper. Then I resurfaced the wooden disc. I tried out a few different types of wood, but I found mdf had an immediate positive effect.n08:11 Now I know that the results are far from perfect, but the deep scratching problem all but disappeared, and for the first time, I was starting to see the surface pop out the way I had read in books.n08:26 Its a huge improvement on my previous efforts with diamantine, and at least now I know what I'm aiming for. Anyway, with that little adventure behind me, I blued the screws to finish them off.n08:58 And now its time to have a bit of fun and see what it all looks like so far. I've got to admit its kind of motivating being able to see the clock start to take shape.nnReferences:nnJohn Wilding Large Wheel Skeleton Clock construction manual:nhttp://www.ritetimepublishing.com/nnHow To Make A Clock In The Home Machine Shop - Part 3, by Clickspring. Less
